Project Ouroboros (21 page)

What are you going to do next? Do you want to live in this world? You can stay. There is no Lamashtu, no Lugal family, there is no Ultimate Corrections, no broken leg, you are just El'Athar, an employee at the Department of Safety in a Research Centre. How do you like that option? You can select thousands of realities, and they can exist in reality.

El'Athar was in the "corner of Dr Moreau" and looked at the wall, where there was supposed to be a door. And Aleph was somewhere behind that wall, El'Athar knew it. He needed to get there somehow and finish the Correction, only how to do it?

The next moment, it seemed that everything went black before his eyes, and blurred. El'Athar looked around and realized that he was not at that wall, where there should be a door that was at its place. But there was something strange there, though ... he felt some invisible waves that passed through, increasing that nagging anxiety, which haunted him for the past two days.

Behind the door, something was stirring, rustling like dead leaves in the wind. Somehow all of it felt terrible, nothing special, but that stirring reached to the bone.

Quiet, quiet sobs.

Tick-tock ...

Someone walked limping.

— Are you afraid?

— No. Terrified. Somehow.

— Jack, and what if it's you there at the door, limping with your broken leg?

A moment, and El'Athar was on the other side of the door in a dark hall, leg ached unbearably, walking was impossible. In the hallway, there were no cabinets or shelves with synthetic organs and bones, just a dusty old room.

How cold and dark it was.

Behind the door, he heard something, as if someone was trampling and talking to himself. And a familiar laugh. There is no such voice, like Daath's.

Where could Aleph be?

Aleph?

Oh, Aleph...

— What has happened to you? — El'Athar rushed to the boy curled up on the cold floor, and picked him up.

— I'm cold... — he whispered with his bloody lips and coughed.

— What has happened?

— I don’t know. I just got here ... I feel so bad and cold...

— Where are the other Lamashtu?

— Other what? My parents died if you have forgotten...

— What parents?

— Jack, are you crazy? Meredith and Irinae Lamashtu... I can not breathe... — Aleph coughed again.

— You need a doctor. How do we get out of here?

— I don't need anyone. Though he missed a bit, but shot well. I am dead, El'Athar.

His head went dark and El'Athar was alone in the hallway again.

Rustling again.

Daath's shadow at the other end of the hall made him accelerate and pull the gun out of the holster. El'Athar suddenly stopped. He realized that if he shoots, then he would kill Aleph.

— Well, Jack, how is that? — Take me back to my world, Daath.

— Your world? — Yes, I want to start the Ultimate Correction.

— Don't you still understand? This is the Ultimate Correction!

It seemed that everything was somehow ephemeral-transparent.

El'Athar found himself in an unfamiliar city, which remotely resembled Uruck. Maybe this was it, but El'Athar was here for the last time so long ago, that he could not be sure exactly.

The city was beautiful: tall white administration buildings resembled sails with neon spiers, wide streets immersed in the greenery, and the roads were so multi-level, that they were difficult to count. The sun blinded his eyes.

The quiet sound of the flute pointed the way and El'Athar sped towards the crowd that surrounded the musician. His heart was so easy and relaxed, so long forgotten feeling ... the warm sun, the rustling of leaves and music. So well, that even the fixator on the leg did not interfere.

... if this is another version of the universe, I would like to stay here...

...Are you sure?..

The crowd surrounding the musician turned to El'Athar.

The legs have suddenly become cotton and did not obey. El'Athar sat on the cobblestones. A warm breeze rustled the leaves of all these strange ancient trees, but ... these people had no eyes. Their faces stretched out, noses were too small, and their lips — too big. That eerie sight suddenly took away all the feelings that were so happy a moment ago.

El'Athar came closer and saw Aleph, who continued to play the flute. He did not look much like himself, rather like those ichthyoids, he became even thinner and seemed to be stretched. Knobby elbows and wrists, transparent membranes between long fingers and long, slender horns — only golden hair and favorite tune reminded of Aleph.

... El'Athar continued to sit on the sidewalk, staring off into the paving blankly and did not notice that everything around him began to change again: the sun set over the horizon and it got colder. Within a minute it began to snow, silently covering the sidewalk. Flute was no longer played, and that helped to return to reality and look around. It was Britain.

Hello, long time no see ...

First cars began to fade from the streets, then people, then the whole houses. They seemed to dissolve, turning into ashes blown away by the wind. The darkness fell, the storm began. Persian Gulf was storming, and all around, but water, continued to fade. The sea filled the city, getting farther and farther away, flooding the entire streets, where a few minutes ago, there were houses.

There was no audible sirens or emergency radio messages, inviting all to leave their homes as thirty years ago. Nothing happened, just water with a solemn silence devoured what was left of the city. Museum Dome of the old town in an instant turned into ashes. There was nothing and no one left...

...all come from dust, and to dust all return...

— Aleph, are you alright?

— El'Athar, what is happening?

— Nothing, it's all over now. We did it. Did you feel... something?

— When all Lamashtu joined, it was very painful. I felt nothing but pain...

— Everything's good now.

— Where are we?

— In Abzu.

— Abzu?

— Yes... it is a place inhabited by "Elohim." Absolute cosmic emptiness. Dark matter?..

— They did not die? Keter, Tifferet, Yesod and the others..?

— No. They're not human. They are just like me. We must preserve the balance of the universe.

— And you? You always said that you're just a human who wants to know the truth.

— I'm still not sure I know it.

— Why am I here?

— I want you to see a new Big Bang.

— I'm too tired...

— Do not worry, you'll have plenty of time to sleep. Until the next Ultimate Correction.

Long thin horns of the blonde were glowing in the dark.

Shadows, more like the refractions of light gathered around El'Athar and Aleph. They were "Elohim." Their voices sounded like hissing, the words were hard to discern, but Aleph understood the most important part:

— Mr Aleph, Mr Daath, it is about to begin...

El'Athar nodded.

... Mr Daath...